What happens when you merge origami with digital technology and immersive learning? For a Ball State architecture major turned graphic design student, this high-tech combination has opened up a new career path that’s definitely on the cutting edge.

After working on a team project involving Ball State’s Institute for Digital Fabrication, Katie Marinaro, ’08, found she could carve out a professional niche using her design education, her technical skills, and her experience with the institute’s high-speed digital laser cutter. She began creating intricate, three-dimensional popup cards and invitations for herself.

“These cards are called origamic architecture,” she says. “When I was introduced to the laser cutter, I began designing my own patterns and began cutting out these cards that I could use to reach out to people and show them what I could do at Ball State.”

It wasn’t long before the university put Marinaro’s creativity to work. In 2006, she was commissioned to make popup keepsake cards for the grand opening of the Ball State Indianapolis Center. More recently, she designed and produced 300 invitations for an Indianapolis reception welcoming admitted freshmen to Ball State’s Honors College.

Both projects allowed Marinaro to collaborate with marketing and graphic design professionals at Ball State and to test her concept for an Internet-based business.

Since graduating and getting married, Marinaro—now McElroy—received a master’s degree in sculpture and graphic design at Ball State. And her business vision? It’s now a real start-up company named mDesign.